Remember when Oklahoma won the National Title in 2000? Not a single OU starter lost a single start due to injury! My research has shown that teams that benefited from very few injuries, in this case 6 or less, usually have a weaker season the next year.

The bottom line is, teams that have suffered a lot of injuries the previous year will generally have a better year the next season. A lot of backups were forced to play during the injury-riddled year, gaining valuable experience and the team figures to not be so injury-prone the next year.

In a study over the last 9 years, my research shows that if a team had 32 or more starts lost to injury the prior season, they improved or had the same record the next year on 80 out of 102 occasions for an 78.4% success rate.

For 2012, a record 26 teams suffered 32 or more starts lost to injury in 2011 and my research had mixed results. First, teams that lost 38 or more starts in 2011 would go on to have a better or same record at a 78.6% clip (11 out of 14) but teams that suffered between 32 and 37 starts lost in 2011 only hit 7 out of 12 times. One of the best examples was Ohio St which lost 55 starts in 2011 to injury and suffered through their first losing season s/’88 at 6-7. Last year, they were much healthier and would go unbeaten at 12-0.

Here are the teams that suffered 32 or more starts lost to injury last year:

Most Starts Lost To Injury in 2012

Rank

Team

Total Starts Lost

1

Colorado St

53

2

Massachusetts

45

3

Arkansas

44

4

Ohio

41

5

Tulane

39

6

Maryland

37

7

Duke

36

8

Eastern Michigan

33

8

Wyoming

33

8

California

33

8

Georgia

33

12

Colorado

32

Colorado St had a couple of major suspensions prior to the season and those starts lost just like injury starts lost count towards the total. UMass suffered a lot of attrition in their first year in FBS losing 45 starts to injury and went just 1-11. Arkansas, who was a preseason Top 10 team went thru a nightmare season that also included losing 44 starts to injury.

Now let's look at the teams that had great fortune with very few injuries. With teams playing a 12-game schedule, I went for the magic number of 6 lost, figuring that is less than one half of one starter lost to injury during the year. Over the past 9 years only 21 of the 70 teams (30%) that had this good fortune managed to improve their record the next year.Last year there were six teams that suffered 6 or less starts to injury in 2011 (good fortune). All six of those teams saw their record stay the same or get weaker including four teams that went from bowl appearances in 2011 to sitting at home in 2012. They included Houston who suffered just 6 starts lost to injury in 2011 and would finish 13-1. Last year, they were not as fortunate and fell all the way back to 5-7! FIU (4 starts lost in ‘11) went from 8-5 to 3-9. Virginia (4) went from 8-5 to 4-8 and California (3 starts lost in ‘11) went from 7-6 to 3-9 last year.

Here are the teams that suffered 6 or less starts lost to injury last year:

Least Starts Lost To Injury in 2012

Rank

Team

Total Starts Lost

1

Louisiana Tech

2

2

Mississippi St

4

3

Kansas

5

3

UTSA

5

3

Northwestern

5

3

Arizona St

5

Louisiana Tech had a great start to last year as they won 9 of their first 10 games and were ranked #19 prior to dropping their last two. One of the main reasons for their success was that they lost only 2 starts to injury and this year figure to not have the same type of luck.

Here is the complete list broken down by total starts lost and also by starts lost on offense and defense which can be indicators of one unit underachieving or overachieving last year.

Starts

Offensive

Defense

Total

Starts

Lost

Starts

Starts

Starts

Lost

Rank

Team

Lost

Lost

Lost

Percent

1

Colorado St

12

41

53

20.08%

2

Massachusetts

25

20

45

17.05%

3

Arkansas

26

18

44

16.67%

4

Ohio

14

27

41

14.34%

5

Tulane

19

20

39

14.77%

6

Maryland

21

16

37

14.02%

7

Duke

2

34

36

12.59%

8

Eastern Michigan

7

26

33

12.50%

8

Wyoming

3

30

33

12.50%

8

California

17

16

33

12.50%

8

Georgia

11

22

33

10.71%

12

Colorado

21

11

32

12.12%

13

Washington

27

4

31

10.84%

13

LSU

29

2

31

10.84%

15

Boston College

12

18

30

11.36%

15

Tennessee

18

12

30

11.36%

17

ULM

5

24

29

10.14%

17

Florida St

8

21

29

9.42%

19

Michigan St

27

1

28

9.79%

19

Boise St

18

10

28

9.79%

21

Miami, OH

9

18

27

10.23%

21

Missouri

23

4

27

10.23%

21

Rice

10

17

27

9.44%

21

BYU

13

14

27

9.44%

25

Minnesota

22

4

26

9.09%

25

Louisiana

13

13

26

9.09%

25

Kent St

10

16

26

8.44%

28

Middle Tennessee

17

7

24

9.09%

29

Kentucky

11

12

23

8.71%

29

Troy

10

13

23

8.71%

29

NC State

18

5

23

8.04%

29

Michigan

8

15

23

8.04%

29

Toledo

4

19

23

8.04%

29

Fresno St

6

17

23

8.04%

29

Arizona

10

13

23

8.04%

29

South Alabama

12

11

23

8.04%

29

Tulsa

17

6

23

7.47%

38

Indiana

16

6

22

8.33%

38

Hawaii

16

6

22

8.33%

38

Auburn

8

14

22

8.33%

38

TCU

14

8

22

7.69%

38

Louisville

13

9

22

7.69%

38

Old Dominion

13

9

22

7.69%

38

San Diego St

11

11

22

7.69%

38

Northern Illinois

10

12

22

7.14%

46

Wake Forest

12

9

21

7.95%

46

Illinois

7

14

21

7.95%

46

Idaho

7

14

21

7.95%

49

Connecticut

10

10

20

7.58%

49

USF

15

5

20

7.58%

49

Air Force

15

5

20

6.99%

52

Western Michigan

16

3

19

7.20%

52

Texas

2

17

19

6.64%

52

Texas Tech

7

12

19

6.64%

52

New Mexico

5

14

19

6.64%

52

Oregon

2

17

19

6.64%

52

Florida

7

12

19

6.64%

52

Wisconsin

9

10

19

6.17%

59

Georgia St

7

11

18

7.44%

59

Iowa

16

2

18

6.82%

59

Pittsburgh

8

10

18

6.29%

59

UCLA

3

15

18

5.84%

63

Army

7

10

17

6.44%

63

Buffalo

10

7

17

6.44%

63

Iowa St

8

9

17

5.94%

63

Rutgers

8

9

17

5.94%

63

SMU

3

14

17

5.94%

63

UNLV

11

6

17

5.94%

69

Houston

10

6

16

6.06%

69

South Carolina

12

4

16

5.59%

71

Miami, Fl

2

13

15

5.68%

71

Virginia

3

12

15

5.68%

71

UAB

8

7

15

5.68%

71

Baylor

0

15

15

5.24%

75

North Carolina

8

6

14

5.30%

75

Ohio St

3

11

14

5.30%

75

Penn St

10

4

14

5.30%

75

Utah

6

8

14

5.30%

75

Nevada

5

9

14

4.90%

75

USC

5

9

14

4.90%

81

Clemson

6

7

13

4.55%

81

San Jose St

1

12

13

4.55%

81

Utah St

12

1

13

4.55%

84

Southern Miss

6

6

12

4.55%

84

Memphis

12

0

12

4.55%

84

North Texas

7

5

12

4.55%

84

Texas St

7

5

12

4.55%

84

Kansas St

5

7

12

4.20%

84

Cincinnati

1

11

12

4.20%

84

Arkansas St

8

4

12

4.20%

84

Nebraska

9

3

12

3.90%

84

UCF

4

8

12

3.90%

93

Marshall

7

4

11

4.17%

93

Virginia Tech

10

1

11

3.85%

93

Oklahoma St

9

2

11

3.85%

93

Notre Dame

1

10

11

3.85%

93

Central Michigan

9

2

11

3.85%

93

Mississippi

3

8

11

3.85%

93

Vanderbilt

7

4

11

3.85%

100

UTEP

6

4

10

3.79%

100

Akron

1

9

10

3.79%

100

FAU

2

8

10

3.79%

100

West Virginia

6

4

10

3.50%

100

Navy

6

4

10

3.50%

100

Texas A&M

1

9

10

3.50%

100

WKU

6

4

10

3.50%

100

Georgia Tech

8

2

10

3.25%

100

Stanford

5

5

10

3.25%

109

FIU

9

0

9

3.41%

109

East Carolina

3

6

9

3.15%

109

Ball St

7

2

9

3.15%

109

Bowling Green

0

9

9

3.15%

109

Temple

7

2

9

3.70%

114

Washington St

7

1

8

3.03%

114

Oklahoma

6

2

8

2.80%

114

Purdue

3

5

8

2.80%

114

Alabama

6

2

8

2.60%

118

Syracuse

5

2

7

2.45%

118

Oregon St

6

1

7

2.45%

118

New Mexico St

1

6

7

1.14%

121

Kansas

2

3

5

1.89%

121

UTSA

2

3

5

1.89%

121

Northwestern

2

3

5

1.75%

121

Arizona St

3

2

5

1.75%

125

Mississippi St

3

1

4

1.40%

126

Louisiana Tech

2

0

2

0.76%

PhilSteele.com will have a page updated weekly dedicated to starts lost again this year. We will track each team's starts lost for the 2013 season so you can see which teams are really banged up and those that have remained very healthy. We even include weekly updated start charts for each of the teams!